ODT’s Most-Read Stories This Week—April 9

Cash was king—and the content of choice—this past week on the ODT website.

Cybervistors followed the money trail to learn more about two acquisitions, a patent lawsuit, and a business separation. The latter news came from DJO parent company Enovis Corporation, which completed the separation of its fabrication technology business into the publicly traded ESAB Corporation. Enovis and ESAB common stock began trading April 5 on the NYSE under the tickers “ENOV” and “ESAB” respectively. Enovis shareholders received one share of ESAB common stock held at close of business on March 22.

Bioventus and Orthopediatrics drove traffic with their respective purchases; Bioventus exercised its option to buy CartiHeal for about $315 million with another $135 million further payable upon CartiHeal’s 12-month revenue achievement. Bioventus took the first step in purchasing CartiHeal last summer with a $50 million escrow payment. 
 
The price tag for MD Orthopaedics was significantly less—only $19.6 million, with $8.6 million paid in upfront cash by OrthoPediatrics Corp., $8.9 million in company stock, and up to $2.5 million in restricted stock after three years. The deal includes MD Ortho’s Mitchell Ponseti ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) system to treat clubfoot. MD Orthopaedics created a custom fit bracing system supporting the gold-standard Ponseti technique for clubfoot. The company will become a specialty bracing platform within OrthoPediatrics’ trauma and deformity business; OrthoPediatrics plans to leverage the clubfoot solution to develop several new products to address specialty bracing in pediatric orthopedics. With an estimated 80 percent  of pediatric care involving non-surgical treatment, the acquisition expands OrthoPediatrics’ addressable market by an estimated $600 million, according to the company.

Lawsuits are always solid traffic-drivers, and Extremity Medical’s accusations against against Nextremity Solutions and Zimmer Biomet did not disappoint. The company’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court of Delaware, alleges Nextremity and Zimmer Biomet infringed on a patent for Exremity Medical’s intraosseous fixation platform when marketing the InCore lapidus system. Extremity Medical has an intellectual property portfolio of 49 U.S. patents and several foreign countries. The firm’s intraosseous fixation platform is a zero-profile upper and lower extremity bone fusion and fixation solution that can be implanted via minimal incisions.

1. DJO Parent Enovis is Now a Standalone Ortho Company

2. Bioventus to Buy CartiHeal for up to $450M

3. Extremity Medical Files Patent Suit Against Zimmer Biomet, Nextremity

4. Conformis Names Tecomet Exec Mike Williams as COO

5. Orthopediatrics Buys MD Orthopaedics for $19.6M